Happy Thanksgiving

These last few weeks have been a blur.  I have been so busy sewing felted wool scarves and handbags.  Last weekend, Staci and I had a great experience at the Sugar Plum Bazaar.  We sold lots of our felted good items and best of all, we got to met lots of friendly customers and learned from many experienced vendors.  Now I have my eye on a smart phone and a little device called Square which will process credit card sales.  I was using the old dinosaur processing machine with the paper credit card charge slips...remember those?  Well, due to cost and the fact that our craft sales have been from October through December, that is what I have been using to process credit card sales.  But, not next year!  I had never felt I needed a smartphone since all I do with my phone is make/receive calls and text (97% of those text are with my teenage daughter Laura) but now, I need it...I want it.  After spending an hour on Saturday and Sunday, calling in the credit card slips I am definitively ready for a change.

My sister Gaby and her two boys, Tony and Santos arrived Monday morning from El Paso, TX.  They will be spending the week with us.  I am so grateful they made the trip and have chosen to spend it with us because this is going to be an especially difficult holiday for them.  Unfortunately, they have been and will continue to experience many "first times" without Robert.  We all miss him dearly.   Robert's thanksgiving tradition was on Wednesday (today) he would bake  like a thousand pumpkin pies.  Robert baked pumpkin pies for all his brothers and sisters and made a special diabetic version for my mom.  He baked and delivered all the pies!  Everyone will be missing him and his pies this year.  In honor of him, today we will bake pumpkin pies in my kitchen.   Unfortunately, since we are in Colorado and Robert's extended family is in El Paso (including my parents), they will not get the pies the kids and Gaby make....but we will. 

I am so grateful for my family and all the blessing we have (which are many) but this year does come with a bit of sadness.   Together, at our thanksgiving meal, we will all remember Robert....his place in our hearts will always be there.

Indoor/Outdoor Canvas Pillow by Staci Alsop

Upcoming Craft Show and Bazaar

This past week I have been sewing many new  felted wool scarves.   I also have several felted wool handbags cut but still have lots of sewing left.  I should have all the scarves ready for the craft show this Saturday. Here are the details for the Columbine High School Craft Fair:

  

HOLIDAY CRAFT FAIR

COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL

6201 S. PIERCE ST.

LITTLETON

SATURDAY, NOV. 12

10 am - 4 pm

ADMISSION $1 (5 & UNDER FREE)

                                                                                                                                               

I am hoping to have all of my felted wool handbags ready for the upcoming Sugar Plum Bazaar.  Staci and I are excited to be a part of this brand new bazaar.  The organizers are doing a terrific job getting the word out on this bazaar.   Here is the poster for this upcoming event:

I found out about this bazaar last week when I received my Denver Handmade Alliance newsletter.  We applied and  were accepted.  Thankfully, the organizers were able to make more vendor space available at the Parkside Mansion.   Staci and I are one of the new vendors.  You can check out the Sugar Plum Bazaar blog here.

CreativiTea Craft Show

Setting up for the CreativitTea Craft Show took some creativity on our parts since Staci and I were sharing two 8 x 5 spaces.  Thankfully, we requested double booths (next to one another) so we were able to share the space in between both "booth spaces."  This was a different type of show for us as the there was a central checkout and it was a 2 day show.  We just had to make sure all of our items were properly tagged with a vendor number and amount.  For the first time since we have done craft shows together, we don't know exactly how much of our items we sold.  We have an idea but it's difficult to know when customers don't pay you for the items in your booth.  Overall, we had a good experience.  The ladies organizing the show were very friendly and took excellent care of all their vendors...they provided breakfast, an assortment of drinks and even lunch.  Staci and I look forward to returning to this juried show next year. 

 I took lots of pictures of our booths.  We have worked very hard to create many one of a kind up-cycled items created from felted wool, paper, vintage linens and fabric.  This year, many of my items and designs revolve around butterflies.

                             

Isabel's Butterfly Design Handbags

                                   

Isabel's Large Felted Wool Rose Pins

                              

Isabel's Paper Butterfly Garlands wrapped in a Wooden Thread Spool

  

Isabel's Butterfly Rings and Flower Rings

Isabel's Atlas Paper Butterfly Magnets (several designs and sizes)

Isabel's Vintage Paper Flower Magnets (several styles & sizes)

Isabel's Felted Wool Medium Size Pins

                                          

Isabel's Vintage Linen Pin Cushions in a small Ceramic Bowl and Silver German Glass Glitter

Isabel's Text & Music Butterfly Magnets

Isabel's Vintage Linen Stuffed Birds

Isabel's small Felted Wool Butterfly Magnets

Isabel's Felted Wool Butterfly & Flower Bookmarks

Isabel Vintage Linen Dress-form Pin Cushions/Decorative

Isabel's Felted Wool Large Butterfly Pins (small butterfly magnets)

Staci also likes to create up-cycled items from felted wool, indoor/outdoor canvas, fabric, thread-spools and paint.  Here are pictures of her items:

Staci's Thread-spool mini trees and Snowman Bookmark

Staci's Thread-spool  Christmas Ornaments

Staci's Felted Wool Flower Bookmarks using rulers as the base

Staci's Felted Wool Wrist-lets or Coffee Mug Holders

Staci...more Wrist-lets or Coffee Mug Holders

Staci's Rosette Pins

Staci's painted Canvas Pillow and Wrist-let's/Coffee Mug Holders

Staci's Felted Wool Mittens

Staci's Felted Wool Scarves

Staci's Felted Wool Ear Warmers

Staci's Felted Wool Handbags/Totes and Canvas Pillows

Staci's Indoor/Outdoor Hand-Painted Decorative Pillows

Staci's painted Indoor/Outdoor Canvas Decorative Pillows

Halloween Night

Halloween night was fun and busy.  This past weekend was extremely busy but fun.  Staci and I participated in the CreativiTea Craft show on Friday and Saturday (my next post will have lots of pictures).  While I was at the craft show, our friend Lisa gave David and Alex a ride to Columbine High School's Trick or Treat Street.  Sophie was at the event in a pretty princess costume (Columbine POMS)...I love the picture David took of Sophie with Alex.  After I was done packing up at the craft show I joined my family at our neighbor's home.  Amy had her annual pumpkin carving party.  I missed part of it but arrived just in time to take pictures of the group with their carved pumpkins and stayed late into the night...enjoyed lots of sweet treats and hot chocolate.  Laura and Alex did a great job with their carved pumpkins and enjoyed all the games and treats.

While we stayed at Amy's pumpkin carving party, Laura went to a Halloween costume party at her friend Hannah's home. 

  Sunday was busy...no rest for me!  I decorated Halloween cupcakes for Alex's 2nd grade class party.   I dropped off my craft inventory at Kristi's home.  Staci and I will be participating at Kristi's Home Craft Show this Friday and Saturday.

  Monday, Halloween, was just as busy.  Alex had a great time at the school party and loved his Darth Vader costume.  During the school costume parade, Alex loved to use the voice box that came with the costume.  Laura was a very cute wolf.  She originally wanted to be Red Riding Hood but did not like the costume she found....she switched and decided to become the wolf instead.   Although Laura is now in 9th grade, I guess it was not a surprise she organized a group of 5 friends to meet at our home so they could all go trick or treating together.  I am happy Laura continues to go trick or treating...she is just growing up too fast! 

Alex aka Darth Vader with his carved pumpkin...100% done by Alex

Laura's carved pumpkin...also 100% carved by Laura

Halloween Night...Darth is ready!

Halloween cupcakes...made for all the 2nd Graders in Alex's class